The present invention relates to a new system and method for receiving and delivering electronic mail and electronic messages using the Internet. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method comprising a Hybrid Email Server (hereinafter xe2x80x9cHEMSxe2x80x9d), which utilizes standard Web Application Servers (hereinafter xe2x80x9cWASxe2x80x9d) for all functionality.
Since the advent of the xe2x80x9cpony expressxe2x80x9d, through the time of the establishment of the U.S. Postal Service and right into the present time, written communication via the mails has changed very little. It basically comprises the following steps: preparing the letter, placing the letter in an envelope, stamping the envelope, xe2x80x9cdropping the envelope in the mailxe2x80x9d, picking up the letter containing envelope and delivering the letter via land, air or sea to the recipient; with no guarantees that such delivery will occur within a reasonable amount of time.
This was and still is a labor intensive process. Such process becomes even more complicated, burdensome and unreliable when the sender has more than one letter to send to more than one recipient, to more than one location with information that is hard to come by.
With the development of computer technology and more particularly with the development of the the world wide electronic web (hereinafter xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d) more and more people choose to forego the traditional mails"" process in favor of electronic mail or electronic messaging using the Internet.
Such electronic mail and electronic messaging is channeled from the sender to the recipient via electronic transfer systems called Email servers. As shown in FIG. 1 (prior art), prior art Email servers comprise one Simple Message Transfer Protocol (hereinafter xe2x80x9cSMTP) server and one Post Office Protocol Version 3(hereinafter xe2x80x9cPOP3xe2x80x9d) server. They process and transmit e-mail to its destination using standardized protocols such as the commonly used Simple Message Transfer Protocol (hereinafter xe2x80x9cSMTPxe2x80x9d) and the Post Office Protocol Version 3 (POP3).
Whenever a piece of e-mail is sent, the e-mail client interacts with the SMTP server to do the sending. The SMTP server on the host Email server may have conversations with other SMTP servers to actually deliver the e-mail. Such a conversation is depicted in FIG. 2 (prior art).
The prior art process for sending an e-mail comprises the following steps: the e-mail client connects to the SMTP server at the host Email server. The e-mail client has a conversation with the SMTP server. The conversation is an extremely simple set of text commands and responses. The e-mail client tells the SMTP server the address of the sender and the address of the recipient, as well as the body of the message.
The SMTP server takes the xe2x80x9cTOxe2x80x9d address and breaks it into two parts: (1) the name of the recipient and (2) the domain name. If the TO address is another user on the same host Email server (the domain name of the recipient happens to in fact coincide with the domain name of the host Email server) the SMTP server will simply hand the message to the POP3 server for the host Email server using a little program called the delivery agent. If, on the other hand, the recipient is in another remote Email server (the domain name of the recipient does not coincide with the domain name of the Host Email server), the SMTP server needs to communicate with that domain.
The SMTP server on the Host Email Server then has a conversation with a Domain Name Server, gets the identifying information for the Domain of the remote Email server and connects to the SMTP of the remote Email server. It has the same simple text conversation as the e-mail client had with the SMTP server on the Host Email server and gives the message to the remote SMTP server. The remote SMTP server recognizes that the domain name of the recipient is the same domain as the domain of the remote Email server and so it hands the message to the remote Email server""s POP3 server. The POP3 server, in turn puts the message in the recipient""s mailbox.
If for some reason the SMTP server on the Host Email server fails to connect with the SMTP server on the remote Email server, then the message goes into a queue. The SMTP server on most prior art Email servers uses a program called sendmail to do the actual sending, and so this queue is called the sendmail queue. Sendmail will periodically try to resend the messages in its queue.
To check e-mail in the prior art Email servers, the e-mail client connects to the POP3 server of the Host Email server. The POP3 server requires an account name and a password. Once the e-mail client logs in, the POP3 Server opens the client""s text file and allows access to it. The e-mail client then issues a series of commands to bring copies of the e-mail messages to the client computer. It will then delete the messages from the host Email server.
Traditional prior art Email servers and their component SMTP and POP3 servers are usually designed by a developer and then sold to users as a complete system with a fixed set of features. They cannot be easily modified. As a matter of fact, the only way that such Email servers can be modified or augmented and expanded, is by returning them to the software developer/manufacturer for the installation of additional custom designed features at an additional cost.
One of the biggest disadvantages of traditional prior art Email servers is that their functionality is fixed. Users cannot easily add or modify features or develop their own custom Email servers utilizing existing application servers or server side scripting/programming languages. Any modification to server functionality can be developed only by programmers who are familiar with high level programming languages such as C++ and with the particular mail server""s Application Programming Interface (hereinafter xe2x80x9cAPIxe2x80x9d).
Another disadvantage in existing prior art Email servers is that there is little choice in defining an e-mail storage method. E-mail needs to be electronically stored on the Email server until the recipient actually retrieves the e-mail via their client computers.
Exactly because the functionality of traditional prior art Email servers is fixed, responding to an e-mail can only be done on a one to one basis. In other words, someone has to turn on their client computer, retrieve the mail, formulate an answer and then respond to the sender, one e-mail at a time. Thus, while the medium of transferring mail may have changed from a manual one to an electronic one, written communication is still entrenched in the old ways of transfer.
Finally, yet another disadvantage of traditional prior art Email servers is the fact that they can communicate with only SMTP and POP3 protocols. This makes their application not only fixed and limited exclusively to e-mail applications, but it completely prevents them from any communication with any other part of the Internet; thereby cutting off a tremendous amount of resources to the parties who are communicating via e-mail.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide for a Hybrid Email Server (hereinafter xe2x80x9cHEMSxe2x80x9d) which can be easily modified or augmented and expanded, without returning it to the software developer/manufacturer for the installation of additional custom designed features at an additional cost.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for an HEMS whose functionality is not fixed.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide for an HEMS whose users can easily add and modify features, or develop their own custom e-mail server utilizing existing application servers or server side scripting/programming languages.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide for an HEMS whose functionality can be modified without the intervention of programmers familiar with high level programming languages such as C++ and with the particular mail server API.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for an HEMS which will provide choices in defining an e-mail storage method.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system and method (i) for receiving more than one e-mail at a time, retrieving the mail, formulating a response and posting said response without human intervention; and (ii) capable of communication with other parts of the Internet using protocols other than SMTP and POP3.
Briefly stated yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for receiving, sending and accessing electronic mail using an HEMS communicatingly connected to a Web Application Server. The HEMS comprises an SMTP server communicatingly connected to an API interface, a Post Server also communicatingly connected to the API interface, a POP3 server and a template memory device designed to run each of the three servers set forth above. The HEMS is configured to listen for and receive incoming mail from a client computer using traditional SMTP protocols, which it then reformats into a data package which, through the API interface can be sent to the Web Application Server for reading, processing and responding. The WAS"" response to the e-mail is then sent back to the HEMS"" SMTP server through the API where it is further processed and either forward to the HEMS"" local POP3 server, or through the POST server is sent on and posted to a POP3 server of a remote prior art Email server.
The novel features which are considered characteristic of the present invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiments when read and understood in connection with the accompanying drawings.